The Racing Wade at NHIS, April 2007
The new race season has started with LRRS at Loudon (NHIS) again.
Last September was my last time on a recebike (The SV650), when I crashed and banged my hip pretty good (internal bleeding turned my whole left leg deep red/purple and put me on the couch for a week) and broke my right thumb again.
This year I'm running a new-to-me EX500 (again), but this time it was a second gen bike which came with 17" wheels on it (as opposed to my grafting 17" units from CBRs and ZX's on a 16"-frame). This was the class championship bike last year, and still has Steve Leslie's sponsor's logo under clearcoat on the tank. This is the closest it gets to throwing money at the Prodtwins class. Maybe I'll find a bumper sticker to cover that logo up with for next time. I expect Lance would rather NOT have his company name associated with a bike coming in at the end of the pack. 
I corner-worked Saturday the 28th. It was suppsed to rain, so I didn't even bring the bike. This turned out to be one of many poor choices I made this weekend. I should have practiced. Weather was great all day, right up to the penultimate race when it started sprinkling...I drove home in increasingly heavy rain later. I picked up 4 bikes in turn 1A - an oddly high number for that corner. We had about 7 redflagged races, with one bike on FIRE at the top of T4. Bud Durgin got some great photos of it, which will appear on his website eventually, I expect: http://www.buddurgin.com
Sunday it was 45 degrees early, but warmed a little later. It stayed drizzly and iffy all day. I was painfully undecisive about which tires to have on the bike (DOT or Rains), but eventually went with the new dunlops, in hopes of scrubbing them in a little. The track was slightly damp, and still cold from the winter. I was gentle as a lamb, but still had one rear-wheel moment coming out of 12 when it broke loose. Fortunately, there was too little traction to spit me off, but rather the rear end waggled back and forth like a fish for a bit. I took a deep breath on the front straight and kept going to the checkers, but I was dog slow. Unfortunately, that was the corner Connie was watching, so she got to see it all. Dammit. I always choose the corner she's in for my crashes and near-crashes.
We were Wave #3 or 4 for Race #3. A motard stalled on the grid ahead of us in the previous wave, and kept trying to start his bike while we waited to GO...the started kept waving at him to get off the track, and eventually he did and we were off. My start sucked. My cornering sucked. I had throttle-control issues. Most likely my fault. I had tire-confidence issues having switched from race-tires to DOTs which had never seen dry track before the warm-up lap. I don't know how I wasn't dead last. I presume the one guy behind me crashed and reentered. Our race was eventually red-flagged for an amateur on the track in 3/4 one lap from the end. That was my only race, and was about the only good decision I made all weekend: the weather just got sketchier after that, but not wet enough for rains.
Gearing up for a season is always expensive early on. The bike cost itself was not inconsequential, but doesn't really count. The new Arai helmet to meet the Snell2005 / 5years old rule was about $500 (If I get a head injury it WILL NOT be because I cheaped out on a helmet). The rest of the big items I could remember are listed below.
Until next time, keep the dirty side down, everyone!
SUMMARY:
-Wade Bartlett, April 30, 2007
Last modified on 30April2007